RIM's current software is still focused on email and messaging, and is less user-friendly, agile and robust than iPhone or Android. Its attempt at touch screens was a flop, and it lacks the apps that power other smartphones.

RIM is hanging its hopes on the BlackBerry 10 software. It is thoroughly redesigned for the touchscreen, internet browsing and apps experience that customers now expect. The Canadian company said the launch event will happen simultaneously in multiple countries.

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek called it a make-or-break product release and said the date of the launch event suggests a release date in mid- to late February or in March.

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A full touchscreen device is expected to be released first followed shortly after by a physical keyboard version.

"Is 10 going to be the solution to retain that marketplace? We'll have to wait and see," Gillis said. "It's great they set a date, but the challenges are still formidable. It's not an issue of initial demand. It's an issue of sustained demand."

Gillis noted that RIM's launch of a tablet initially went alright but then demand fell sharply. RIM's tablet, the Playbook, uses software on which the BlackBerry 10 will be based.

Thorsten Heins, who took over as CEO in January after the company lost tens of billions in market value, had vowed to do everything he could to release BlackBerry 10 this year but said in June that the timetable wasn't realistic. Heins says he can turn things around with BlackBerry 10.

The new BlackBerrys will be released after the holiday shopping season and well after Apple's launch of the iPhone 5, expected to be Apple's biggest product introduction yet.

RIM's platform transition is also happening under a new management team and as RIM lays off 5000 employees as part of a bid to save $US1 billion.

RIM was once Canada's most valuable company with a market value of more than $US80 billion in 2008, but the stock has plummeted since, from over $US140 per share to around $US8. Its decline evokes memories of Nortel, another former Canadian tech giant, which declared bankruptcy in 2009.